On Friday, Mar. 13, President Carmen Twillie Ambar notified the Oberlin community that Rabbi Scott “Shlomo” Elkan, former co-director of Oberlin Chabad, was permanently banned from campus due to his engagement “in online sexual conversations concerning children and objectionable behavior.”

Per the police report, Elkan was the recipient of images from a resident of Illinois, concerning three young people ages seven, 12, and 13 over the course of seven days. Images included a photo of a female child in a bathtub, as well as of a female child’s underwear. Per the police report, Elkan engaged in conversation surrounding these images and asked explicit questions related to them. The police report does not indicate that Elkan sent any explicit images of children himself.

The report does detail that Elkan sent images that “contain what appear to be teenage juvenile females in cheer-leading outfits, bathing suits, dresses and various states of dress mostly at a beach setting.”

The Oberlin Police Department closed the case after 20 days without filing any charges against Elkan. 

The police report states that Elkan emphasized the chats served as a kind of “‘escapism’ from the stress of his everyday life.” In an interview with The Forward, Elkan expressed regret about his actions. 

“To be clear, what had happened was an online chat with an anonymous adult on purely fictional, you know, fantastical things that’s not rooted in any kind of reality whatsoever,” Elkan said to The Forward. “And I entered that, and I should not have, and I take responsibility for that.”

The Review was unable to reach Elkan for comment.

On Jan. 2, Oberlin Detective Bashshar Wiley received an anonymous tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The tip stated that the Illinois resident “allegedly [had] conversations of a highly sexual nature about [redacted] on the Kik messaging app and has also possibly shared media images of [redacted] to other individuals.” At first simply identified as an individual in Oberlin, the OPD verified that Elkan was one of the recipients of these images by tracing the Kik account login information and the IP Geo-Lookup. 

It took the College over a week to notify the community of Elkan’s misconduct after it received the police report. In an interview with The Oberlin Review, President Ambar attributed this delay to the College’s need to conduct its own research around Elkan and to set up support systems for students and a compliance framework for students to send in any complaints surrounding Elkan’s conduct. To support affected students, the College brought in more counselors as well as a new rabbi, Allison B. Vann, who is working with the Jewish community for the rest of the semester. 

President Ambar stated that, in the College’s assessment of the report, no members of the College community were in active danger, so the College was able to ensure that the above frameworks were in place before notifying the community. The College have not received any complaints from students over its email or call line regarding personal interactions with Elkan. One parent contacted the College over email but their concern did not pertain to Elkan’s conduct.

“The report describes behavior that is more than troubling,” President Ambar said. “It was difficult to read, disturbing, and the reported behavior was a profound violation of the moral standard and values of Oberlin. Our review of the report, and the auhorities’ decision not to press charges, made us feel like there was no immediate imminent danger to students and faculty and staff. That being said, a betrayal of trust and our values is its own harm, which is why we convened quickly to simultaneously inform the campus and to have in place the investigation process, and counseling and religious support for our community.”

Elkan, as well as students and faculty who worked closely with him, were notified of his expulsion from campus on the morning of March 13. In a conversation over Zoom with Chief of Staff and Strategy Officer David Hertz, Elkan was told he would not be welcome back on campus a half hour before President Ambar’s message was sent. One of the student groups notified was the student board of Oberlin Chabad, who President Ambar lauded for their response to the situation.

“I’ve really been deeply, deeply impressed with the Chabad board and how they’ve gone about this matter,” President Ambar said. “And [I’ve been impressed with] their desire to, yes, deal with the sadness and the concern and the disbelief, but also fairly quickly after several hours of processing and coming together, starting to think about how they move forward.”

The next phase of the College’s process will include a survey sent out to alumni to ensure that no present or former College students were negatively affected by Elkan.